Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Day 15: Gadgets make the world go round

 
We haven’t eaten rice in our house for about a year and a half. That’s a long time.

Counting carbs caused me to make tough choices. First of all, I gave up all things white, which I am still doing. White bread, flour, potatoes, rice, pasta…they all are very high is carbs and give me nowhere near the complex carbs/fiber I needed to help keep my blood sugar stable.

Next came the other carbs. Rice simply was too high in carbs for the portion I could have. 30 carbs was a meal for me. A cup of brown rice has about 45 carbs in it, and ½ a cup of rice just wasn’t worth it. But now, no more carb counting. Rice has become a staple. Tonight we had it with left over ratatouille to which I added some cooked garbanzo beans. It’s a perfect accompaniment with a stir-fry, with Peter’s now famous spicy rice and beans…and on and on. Therefore, a gadget was called for to make cooking rice easier and quicker.  We get home at 5:30  (well, I do now, but that changes by the academic semester) and want to eat by 6:30 or 7. Enter, the rice cooker.

I had seen rice cookers in action – set it and forget it. Perfect rice every time. Hot, steaming and fluffy.

Wow, sounds like I’m talking about Kennebunk’s latest scandal.

OK, back to the rice cooker. I did some research on my go-to-site for everything, Amazon. AS a Prime member, if I can get it there for a good price, that’s where I go. Hair products, shoes, books (of course), you name it, Amazon has it. And sure enough, there was a little red rice cooker for under $20.00. My kitchen has red toile wallpaper so red appliances are a must-have.


This little baby cooked a cup of long grain brown rice in 30 minutes. Perfectly. So very impressive. And convenient. It also has a steamer insert, which I tried with some veggie dumplings. Also quick, convenient, and mucho-yum. Little things like always being able to have fresh rice take away a bit of the panic of what to have for dinner when you can't whip up an omelet.
 

That, and the fact that red wine contains no animal products.

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